I'm caught in the cycle of endless competition, you're waiting for me in the apocalypse.

"...Xinxin...run...don't come any closer..."

"Mom! Mom...I'm coming to save you..."

The scene was so chaotic that An Xin was almost in despair and reached out to try and grab Wen Lan...

Wen Lan, swept along by the panicked crowd and the chaotic zombies, stumbled and ran towards the hole in the city wall. An Xin, casting a light-based shield on herself, frantically pushed her way to Wen Lan. The scene was chaotic and noisy... the crowd consisted of the elderly, women, and children; children cried in panic, women screamed in despair, and the elderly murmured helplessly...

It all happened so suddenly that the base guards didn't even have time to react before the city walls of the civilian area were pushed down by zombies. And a huge number of zombies poured into the city like a tidal wave.

By the time the base administrators had hastily completed their deployment and the superhumans and guards arrived at the scene, everything was beyond repair...

"Anxin... come back quickly... it's dangerous..."

When the team leader saw An Xin recklessly charging into the horde of zombies, his eyes widened in fury, and he roared a warning at her. But reality was cruel. Before anyone could unleash their powers to rescue An Xin and the civilians, a whooshing sound was heard, followed by a burst of bright red blood erupting from An Xin's body…

In the next instant, time stopped, and space seemed to be imprisoned... Suffocation, frenzy, rage, panic, and despair all subsided into silence... A flash of white light...

.........................................................

A splitting headache... Before An Xin even opened her eyes, she felt as if her entire body was riddled with holes. Confusion and chaos slowly took over her mind.

She opened her eyes to a sea of ​​white. An Xin had no idea where she was lying or how much time had passed, but her face was wet and her whole body ached… “Wait, am I already dead? But why can I still feel pain?”

An Xin closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and tried hard to recall every little detail from before...

"That's it, Mom! I need to save Mom!"

An Xin sat up abruptly, looking around blankly. This white space contained only An Xin.

"Hey! Anyone there? Hi~"

An Xin wiped her tear-streaked face, the traces left from her earlier panic and helplessness. Just as An Xin waited anxiously, hoping someone would answer her, a tingling sensation came from her elbow, which she was supporting herself on the ground, and something nudged her twice.

Reflexively, An Xin quickly turned her head and raised her hand... What she saw was a pair of wet, bright, round eyes...

A dog? A white dog?

The dog looked at the stunned An Xin, tilted its little head, and stuck out its pink little tongue, trying to look cute...

An Xin was momentarily stunned when she was suddenly captivated by a white Chinese rural dog.

"Hey~ Human, aren't you captivated by this majestic old man's appearance?"

"...?!" An Xin was shocked, speechless, and blinked hard. "Slender Dog, was that you speaking?"

"You're the greyhound, your whole family are greyhounds, I'm the divine beast! The divine beast Di Ting!"

An Xin stared wide-eyed at the Chinese rural dog in front of her, which was panting with its tongue lolling out and pawing back and forth in a desperate attempt to express its dissatisfaction.

—This...this thing is Di Ting?

"Are you Di Ting? Where's your one-horned head? Your dragon head? Your tiger head? Your lion tail? Your qilin feet? Apart from your dog ears, how do you resemble Di Ting at all?"

"You! You! You!" The dog cried out anxiously, pacing in circles. "If it weren't for you, would I be like this? To save you, I sacrificed most of my spiritual power, and could only come to your side using a split soul... So, I could only... I could only end up like this... Ugh."

The dog got more and more agitated and aggrieved as it spoke. Looking at the human staring at it with wide eyes and an open mouth, continuing to look at it with an expression as if it were a monster… it was exhausting…

"An Xin, female, from Country Z, 29 years old, 168cm tall, head of the medical department at the National Rising Star Base, possesses light-based superpowers. Her mother, Wen Lan, is 56 years old and works in the base's logistics department. Her father is missing. The apocalypse has arrived. You are 19 years old, majoring in fashion design at M University, with a minor in jewelry design..." Gouzi rattled off a string of words, then looked up at the bewildered woman. Seeing her still doubtful, he continued, "You still don't believe I'm the omniscient and omnipotent divine beast, Di Ting? Hmph, woman, don't force me to unleash my ultimate move!!!"

“…?” An Xin had just looked up from a pile of her own resumes and her brain was rebooting when she heard that bastard’s obsequious voice.

"Hehehe...woman, you have a crush on your base's superpowered team...mmm...mmm..."

In the blink of an eye, An Xin, with unprecedented speed, dove to save the ball and covered the dog's mouth with her hand: "Ahhh! Dog, Grandpa Dog... Ah! No, Lord Diting! This humble woman believes you, believes you, okay? Please stop, stop, it's too embarrassing! Ah!"

"Ugh... ugh... ugh!" -- Quick! Let go! I'm suffocating!

An Xin hurriedly released the dog, patted her chest, and then, as if remembering something, asked with a worried expression, "Dog... Lord Di Ting, what about my mother? I almost pulled her away just now, how is she?"

"Hmm... I don't know..." Di Ting tilted his head.

"Aren't you omniscient and omnipotent?"

"Nonsense, I used most of my spiritual power and could only save you. Do you know how much it costs to stop time? Your mother is like Schrödinger's cat now; only when you go back to that point in time will she know."

"Can we go back now?"

"No, woman, I'm just a fragment of your soul. It's good enough that I can stay in my current dog form."

"What should we do then?" An Xin asked anxiously.

"What can we do? Just let it be. It's not easy to recover spiritual power, and you're just a soul now... Sigh... You were so close. If you hadn't been hit and died, you might have been able to save some spiritual power..." Di Ting muttered to himself as he spoke.

"Why did I get hit? I had my light shield active..." An Xin's brain finally started working, and she pondered and recalled, trying to find clues.

"This is something I, your old man, can't understand either. Why don't I know? At least I can trace the cause and effect of things that have happened... But, for some reason, when I try to look into it, all I see is a fog..."

"Then can you see why my mother was surrounded by zombies in the civilian area?"

"No, I've tried, but it seems I don't even have the ability to see your world anymore..."

An Xin looked at the once excited and proud Di Ting dog, now suddenly listless, its little head drooping, its round puppy eyes half-closed, looking pitiful. She couldn't bear it and softened her voice, saying, "Lord Di Ting, it's alright, it's alright. Human will can overcome anything. As long as you're alive, there's always a way!"

"Hopefully, my main body has gone into hibernation. To recover, the only way is for the two of us to gather spiritual energy."

"Huh? The two of us? What do we do?"

“Use the scroll of good fortune to collect spiritual power, good fortune, merit, and even the power of faith from the six realms.”

"Aren't we souls? Don't you have no spiritual power? What's going on?" An Xin was confused again. Although she had temporarily put aside her worries about her mother and her own doubts about being infected, being in an unfamiliar environment, facing a thorny problem, and having no idea what the future held, even the most composed person couldn't muster any energy.

"The Six Realms consist of the Hell Realm, the Hungry Ghost Realm, the Animal Realm, the Human Realm, the Asura Realm, and the Deva Realm. They are governed by the cycle of cause and effect, arising from the karma of all beings, and are not planes or universes... Have you heard of the Three Thousand Great Thousand Worlds? Three thousand Lesser Thousand Worlds make up a Middle Thousand World, and three thousand Middle Thousand Worlds make up a Great Thousand World. The Three Thousand Great Thousand Worlds are managed by a powerful and wise being, and of course, each world also has different minor managers."

"A junior manager? The Heavenly Dao of each world? A person of destiny? The male and female protagonists?" An Xin's peach blossom eyes sparkled: "We're going to collect spiritual energy in the minor worlds of the Six Realms? Does that mean I'm like a mission taker in a quick transmigration story? Are you the system? Do we have a space? Do we have a cheat code?"

"You think this is a fictional world? Wake up! Do you expect me to call you 'dear host'? Or 'master'? What are you thinking?! I am Di Ting, the divine beast Di Ting!"

—Yes, yes, yes, it's the dog that split off from Lord Diting's soul~

An Xin reached out and ruffled Di Ting's head, thinking: Hmm, it feels pretty good, it's the kind of fluffy stuff I like.

"Alright, alright! Lord Diting, please forgive this bookworm, please continue..."